What is Soul? Part 1
Soul is not a person, place, or a thing. Soul is also not a man, woman, animal, or anything material in nature and that is why “There is no definition”
“All this, the physical universe is Brhmn (god) and the soul is also Brahmn (god). This soul has four parts/limbs”
Mandukya Upnishad.
What is soul then?
Soul is transcendent content of all manifest universe. It is infinite, unborn, eternal and cannot be divided or related to. It does not have shape, size, diameter or weight, length, or breadth.
As children we all learnt the following couplet of Kabir.
जैसे तिल में तेल है, ज्यों चकमक में आग |
तेरा साईं तुझ में है, तू जाग सके तो जाग ||
(The way oil is in the sesame seed, like fire in the stone, your god resides within you. Become conscious if you can.)
We cannot define infinity or colourless. In the same way soul, is a singularity, without a reference frame. We are conscious and soul is a state of Pure Consciousness.
However, Pure Consciousness (god consciousness) and our consciousness (soul consciousness) are separated by layers and layers of illusion. As the layers are removed Pure State of Consciousness shines and we see the soul.
The soul becomes Brahmn.
If we look at the Ocean, we see trillions of waves. The waves appear and disappear. When waves appear, we give them parameters like big or small, fast, or furious.
What are waves? The wave is water, and its content is water. It is made with water and it merges with water.
Please pause and think “Did the wave ever leave the ocean?”
NO.
When parameters were given, we did not consider that the length and depth and the spread of ocean water in all directions were part of the wave. The wave never left the Ocean. The wave was always part of the Ocean.
The wave was all that water, too.
Next ask “From where did the wave appear and where did it disappear?
It appeared out of the Ocean and merged with the Ocean.
Ask the final question: “What was the content of Ocean and the wave?”
Water.
Everything becomes clear. Soul and God, are not two, but One. (This is the highest Hindu philosophical thought).
Our problem starts when we see the bodies dying (Like the waves dying) and the soul goes away to heaven or hell. The belief is both right and wrong. This we shall take it up in blogs to follow.
Soul, when under the sway of senses of perception experiences thoughts, emotions, and feelings it becomes “Ego” (self).
The one that is attached to its associations. Its relationships, its possessions, its power, fame, and wealth. We grieve, we laugh, we rejoice, and we suffer, and we are angry, sad, sorry, kind or caring. These are all association born out of ignorance of our own true nature!!
However, I am the Ocean. I am infinite, eternal, unborn, without beginning and end is also an experience of the human consciousness when awareness transcends the limitation of five senses of perception.
When such a light of knowledge shines in our heart, Ego loses its illusive identity, and becomes soul.